


To Be Happy

by GlowAmber



Category: Tangled (2010), Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Adventure, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Falling In Love, Royalty, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 07:05:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18244835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlowAmber/pseuds/GlowAmber
Summary: They've been betrothed since they were born, and now they finally meet. Arianna hopes she can settle and learn to be happy here, while Frederic hopes this is his chance to find happiness.It takes stumbling steps, but they both learn how to be happy... And how to fall in love.Prologue up!





	To Be Happy

_‘There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.’_

She had hoped that she had done enough in her life, though it had been a short life so far, that she would be happy at the sight of Corona’s towers rising up over the treeline. This was her future, the place she would spend the rest of her days, she should want to be happy here. Instead, the tallest spire in ivory and pale blue made her every breath feel like she was breathing in thick smoke, always one step closer to choking, her lungs burning and her chest becoming tight.

It also could have been the corset.

Arianna de Sunhills ran her hand down her torso, pressing in lightly on her stomach to feel the boning. It had been some time since she had bothered with a corset, and her lady in waiting had not been kind in lacing her in. She was already fairly trim, she was almost positive no one would have noticed her going without a corset, but Friedborg had insisted on the tight lacing.

She had to look her best, Arianna could hear her mother and father repeating, their voices insistent ugly whispers in her mind, because today…

Today she was meeting her future husband.

Out the carriage window, the hilled island with it's green slopes and red roofed homes finally came into full view. It was picturesque, the sun glinting overhead and giving it full majesty, but Arianna’s eyes drifted away and to the sparkling waters that lay just beyond Corona’s reach. Deep teals and bright blues with the wash of seafoam and the promises of something more on the salty breeze made her clench her hands into fists on her lap.

She had hoped with everything in her that she had done enough in her short life that she would be happy, here, but she knew as she forced herself to look away from the window that it could never be enough. 

 

\----

 

Since he had been a young lad, he had known the name of his betrothed. It was an arranged marriage, her hand promised to him before either of them had cut teeth or crawled, but he had hopes for something happy. It may have been much to pin such dreams on a person he had never met, had only seen in portrait, but he had spent the whole of his short life watching his parents pass each other with cool smiles and listless eyes and wished for something more than that. Something warm and tangible, honest.

The servants and people in town all had happier marriages. They shone when they merely thought of their spouses, Frederic knew this. And while he had so much, was it selfish to want just a little bit more? To want to find happiness, just this once, just to have and to hold, even if it wasn’t love, per se.

She was his only chance, there would be no other engagements or fiances, just the brunette from Sunhills with emerald green eyes that the painter confided he hadn’t managed to do justice. He leaned out over the balcony, nervous and excited all at once, his breath short because today…

Today he was meeting his future wife. 

He could feel Nigel’s disapproving gaze on him, from behind, that he was acting unbecoming of a Prince with his unrefined posture and emotional display-- but sod it, they were alone and he was allowed this one moment. He was smiling, brightly, broadly, hopefully, wanting above all else to at least befriend the woman he’d been smitten with since he’d had them hang her portrait in his personal study. 

This was his chance to be happy.


End file.
